DI-977IH Pelican
The DI-977IH (Infantry, Heavy) Pelican was a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) aircrafta and spacecraft that served as a troop and vehicle carrier for the United Nations Space Command Navy, Army, and Marine Corps. The craft is notable for its ancient design that has proven to be a very capable one throughout the centuries that has been constantly updated by different manufacturers, but still retains its iconic fusalage and wing design. The DI-977IH was first utilized in 2940, nearly three hundred years of active service. The current manufacturer for the Pelican Dropship is Boeing Interstellar. Description The Pelican Dropship has been a crucial piece of military hardware for hundreds of years due to its ubiquitous use in combat situations as both a gunship and a troop carrier that was rated to be flown from ground to orbit. What made it incredibly useful to the UNSC was the twin flight mode. The vehicle was meant to be flown in both an atmosphere and in vacuum and had the ability to switch depending on the medium. The Pelican came equipped with SCRAM jets built into it for the purpose of increased air intake, superheating, and subsequent propulsion from the energy produced. This allowed the craft to achieve suborbital or orbital flight. While within an atmosphere, the Pelican was designed to function as a fixed-wing aircraft for the most part, using control surfaces and aelions to allow movement within an atmosphere. Upon landing, the dropship had the ability to use wing mounted ventral jets to slow descent and allow landing on a set of carbon-nanotube infused tires. These tires allowed it to take off from a runway and land like a conventional aircraft as well if the need arised. When in vacuum though, the DI-977IH performed like any other space craft using vectored thrust and RCS (Reaction Control System, thrusters) surfaces in order to move and position itself in space. The wings were able to move a lot more in order to direct thrust with greater input variability from the pilot. The dropship relied on fusion engines in this stage that allowed it to operate in hard vacuum as well as in non-oxygenated atmospheres that could not allow for jet flight. The bottom of the craft is coated with high strength and reusability heat shield tiles that could be used for reentry purposes. Though stock, the dropship was unequipped, it was common practice to arm the dropships with ARML2 40mm depleted uranium rotary autocannons that served as both offensive and defensive systems. The weapons could be controls either through an on-board computer targeting system, or the pilot could use their helmet to aid in the target acquisition. The weapon was fed from a high capacity drum which was usually fixed within the dropship. In addition to this, it was equipped with six underwing hardpoints where missile, bombs, or external fuel tanks could be placed depending on the mission requirements. Aside from conventional weapons, the dropships could mount energy weapons. Pulse lasers are a common addition to the dropship as wing-mounted weapons platforms, and a dedicated high-output laser was sometimes used in conjunction with the chin cannons. Another staple feature of the DI-977IH was the fact that it could carry vehicles into a combat scenario using a set of magnetic and physical clamps located on the rear of the craft. The Pelican could hold upwards of a main battle tank on its rear tail without being bogged down due to a large amount of its mass being concentrated on the cockpit and troop bays. The bays themselves could be pressurized for infantry to be carried from space to the ground for deployment. On its own, the Pelican could carry 20 infantry units in its bay, with an additional thirty when equipped with an extended troop bay which was mounted on the tail. In addition to its standard offensive loadout, the DI-977IH was equipped with a full bank of M86 Hummingbird UAVs, totalling approximately 10. These drones were designed to be launched from the Pelican which could function on their own power, survey a battlefield, and return to the craft for reuse. The Hummingbirds were equipped with standard visual, IR, Heat, and Electromagnetic vision filters to find just about any target in any circumstance. In the event that a pilot needed to eject from the craft, emergency explosive bolts on the cockpit could be detonated in rapid order. Though the bolts were timed in such a way that the canopy, when released from the craft, would be carried up and away from the dropship in order to prevent the pilot from hitting the jettisoned debris. The pilot then is blown free from the ship through ejector seat. While in this seat, the pilot has basic maneuverability from small thruster ports on the craft, and has oxygen for well over three hours. The chair and the pilot also come equipped with a special beacon that signals for pickup upon completion of a battle which results in an very high pilot recovery rate. Known Pelicans *Gloria *Victor 101 *Omega 321 Behind the Scenes * I have always used the Pelican as my go to dropship for the Chaos Chronicles, but after a few years, people have told me that it would seem quite antiquated for the age, especially since it had been 700 years since Halo 3 had occured. I realized that explaining the dropship had passed from one manufacturer to another would explain some of this, and the sheer reliability of the design guaranteed that people would go back to it even after hundreds of years of usage. Sometimes things just work. List of Appearances *Soldier's Log (First Appearance) *Shadow in the Dark *The Terran Incident *Warpath *Deception *Operation Factory Raid *Operation Harmony (Inc) *The Children of Mobius (Inc) *The Journals of Sally Acorn Category:Vehicle Category:UNSC Category:Military